Advocacy in Cambodia: Increasing Democratic ... - Pact Cambodia

land law
Case Studies
After the 1998 national elections,
representatives of rural communities began
flowing into Phnom Penh to protest land grabbing
(the act of privatizing community used land when
ownership is unclear) in front of the National
Assembly and the Prime Minister’s residence.
Land disputes began much earlier, but people had
been reluctant to voice their grievances in previous
years and prior to the elections. Once peace was
established in December 1998, citizens began to
feel increasing confidence to voice their concerns,
and while the demonstrations
did not lead to immediate
action, they did serve to raise
awareness of the land grabbing
problem and would eventually
result in creation of national
and provincial land dispute
resolution commissions. The
steady flow of demonstrators
to the capital after the
elections lent proof that the
land grabbing problem was
extensive.
Oxfam Great Britain’s
Land Study Project
Oxfam GB, its partners, and other
development organizations began hearing stories
from their project communities about land
disputes and abuse of power and in August 1998,
Oxfam GB, in collaboration with four local
partners, initiated a pilot Land Study Project (LSP)
to study land disputes. The project began by
looking at causes of land disputes, and following
the research phase Oxfam held a workshop in late
1998 for NGOs and government officials to discuss
the study’s findings.
The workshop concluded that the main cause
of land disputes was shortcomings of the 1994
Land Law, which some contend was created to
serve the interests of a small group. Some of the
1994 Land Law clauses did not reflect the reality
of the new market economy in Cambodia, in which
land began to have more value. Under the 1994
law, landowners were required to register at
cadastral offices. This requirement was
Legal Aid of Cambodia
conservatively estimates
that 100,000 people are
currently in a situation in
which powerful players are
trying to displace them.
problematic and misunderstood, and most people,
who considered themselves owners of land they
were living on did not try very hard to secure land
titles. This failure to secure titles created
opportunities for others to take advantage of the
situation and grab land for themselves, sometimes
by creating fake titles for properties and evicting
those living on them.
Enactment of a New Land Law
When the Asian
Development Bank began
negotiating a large loan with
the Ministry of Agriculture in
the mid-1990s, the land law
issue arose and it became clear
that a new land law was
needed. Prior to 1995, the
cadastral department fell
under the Ministry of
Agriculture’s responsibility. In
1995, responsibility for that
department was transferred to
the Council of Ministers.
In 1998, the cadastral
department prepared a first
draft of a new land law. At that
same time, an outcome of the December 1998
Oxfam GB workshop was the formation of an
NGO/IO land law working group that met
regularly to discuss the draft. The draft was divided
into six or seven sections (e.g. state property,
indigenous rights, possession, concessions,
succession) and various organizations accepted
responsibility for analyzing them. Oxfam GB
provided a secretary to collect the comments.
During the process, NGOs consulted with judges
and officials from all levels of the Ministry of
Justice in order to better understand what
improvements were needed and to identify
implications for implementation.
In response to daily demonstrations by
villagers in front of the National Assembly and the
Senate, in March 1999 the Council of Ministers
created a national land dispute commission with
provisions for creation of provincial commissions.
When communities demonstrated at the National
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